Star Sports to launch free-to-air sports channel

The channel will go on air on 21 July on DD’s FTA DTH platform Freedish. It will allow sports fans to watch their favourite sports in Hindi without paying any fee, a media release issued by Star Sports said. The channel will also air VIVO Pro Kabaddi League Season 5, which will begin in Hyderabad on 28 July. Its programme calendar will also include BCCI domestic cricket tournaments and domestic football tournaments.

A Star India spokesperson said: “Television penetration in India has grown exponentially. We recognize that there is a very sizable subset of this universe that is not on conventional pay TV. In the ‘free-to-air’ content that they have access to, sports content is mostly absent and only sporadically available. It is our belief that there is an eager appetite for it.”